Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud addressed a frequently raised concern regarding the suitability of same-sex couples for adoption and child rearing while hearing the marriage equality petitions on Thursday.
What happens if a heterosexual couple’s child witnesses domestic violence? After witnessing their father being an alcoholic, coming home every night, thrashing the mother, and asking for money for alcohol, will that child grow up in a normal household? “This is why, as I said, there are no absolutes,” CJI stated, adding, “I say this at the risk of being trolled.” So much for heterosexuals.
“The judges must contend with this, which has become the game’s name. “Answers to what is said in the court are in the trolls, not in the court,” the CJI added, referring to some of the extreme responses that have been posted on social media to some of the observations that he made during the hearing.
A constitution seat containing the main equity, as well as Judges Sanjay Kishan Kaul, S
Ravindra Bhat, Hima Kohli, and PS Narasimha, was hearing a bunch of requests for the lawful acknowledgment of same-sex marriage.
After reviewing the evidence presented by senior advocate KV Viswanathan, who was appearing on behalf of transgender rights activist Zainab Patel, regarding same-sex couples adopting children, the CJI made the remarks regarding same-sex couples raising children. The senior counsel also reminded the court that, in its hundred and eighteenth annual report, a Rajya Sabha parliamentary standing committee had recommended the creation of a comprehensive law relating to adoption and maintenance that would harmonise the existing statutory enactments. “The senior counsel also urged the court to not look at marriage through the narrow lens of procreation. The fact that the parliamentary committee wanted the new law to include the LGBTQIA community is significant, Viswanathan informed the bench.
In addition, Viswanathan mentioned a case from Hawai’i in the United States. In that case, after being remanded by the Supreme Court, a study was carried out, and the results showed that “there was no evidence to show that gay, lesbian, and same-sex couples did not provide children the safety, security, and the upbringing they require.” He added, “Long back in our country, all that was expected under the law was the government assistance of the youngster. 4/20/23, 10:33 PM ‘What Happens When A Child Of Heterosexual Couple Sees Domestic Violence?’: It doesn’t matter if that condition is met. CJI DY Chandrachud On Worries Over …
whether the couple is hetero and gay.” In addition, the senior counsel emphasized that the empirical data supported the obvious conclusion that same-sex couples were just as “well-suited” to raising children as heterosexual couples.
Yesterday, the Chief Justice made the observation that one of the two people in a same-sex relationship would be allowed to adopt children as a single parent even under the existing legal infrastructure when discussing the consequential rights that marriage bestows on individuals, such as the right to adopt children. subject to any additional requirements stipulated by applicable law. By saying this, he scrutinized the sufficiency of the contention about the mental effect of being raised by guardians of similar sex on youngsters and the reasonableness of such a couple to be guardians. ” Today, regardless of whether a couple is in a gay relationship or a lesbian relationship, one of them
can in any case embrace. It’s just that the child doesn’t get the benefits of both parents being parents.
“The Parliament would have to first examine what would be the psychology of a child who has seen either two men as parents or two women as parents and has not been raised by a father and a mother,” the Solicitor-General for India told a bench headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud earlier this year during a hearing that resulted in an order referring a batch of petitions challenging various Indian statutory provisions, including those of the Hindu Marriage Act, Special Marriage Act, and Foreign Marriage Act, to a Then, in response, CJI Chandrachud stated that a child raised by a same-sex couple does not necessarily need to be homosexual.
Arguments that draw on an alleged ontological distinction between heterosexual and homosexual couples are common in the opposition to marriage equality, with one of the alleged distinctions being their capacity and fitness to raise children.
It is interesting to note that, while the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights has voiced concerns regarding the adoption of children by same-sex couples, the Delhi Commission for the Protection of Child Rights has taken a more progressive stance in favor of such couples’ adoption rights.
HARDIK SHARMA, BCOM LLB 8TH SEM
